Vinay Parameswaran Conductor
Internationally recognized for his energetic presence, imaginative programming, and compelling musicianship, Vinay Parameswaran is one of the most exciting and versatile young conductors on the podium today. Parameswaran joined The Cleveland Orchestra as Assistant Conductor beginning in the 2017-18 season and was promoted to Associate Conductor in 2021. In this role, he leads The Cleveland Orchestra in several dozen concerts each season at Severance Hall, Blossom Music Festival, and on tour. He also serves as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.
In the 21/22 season, Parameswaran conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in several concerts including a subscription program at the Blossom Music Center, as well as the Toledo Symphony. Upcoming engagements include debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Charlotte Symphony, Oakland Symphony, and return appearances with the Nashville Symphony and Rochester Philharmonic. Highlights of the 20-21 season included Parameswaran’s subscription debut with The Cleveland Orchestra, debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and return appearances with the Toledo Symphony. Recent guest appearances have included debuts with the Detroit Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Tucson Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Vermont Symphony, and the Eugene Symphony.
In the summer of 2019, Parameswaran made his classical subscription debut with The Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival in a program of Ives, Bernstein, and Rachmaninoff. He also led The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra on an acclaimed four-city European tour that included a performance at the Musikverein in Vienna.
Parameswaran came to Cleveland following three seasons as associate conductor of the Nashville Symphony, where he led over 150 performances. During the 2016-17 season, Parameswaran made his subscription debut with the Nashville Symphony conducting works by Gabriella Smith, Grieg, and Prokofiev.
In the summer of 2017, Parameswaran was a Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. He has participated in conducting masterclasses with David Zinman at the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, as well as with Marin Alsop and Gustav Meier at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
Vinay Parameswaran conducts Sibelius, Lutosławski, and Dvořák’s violin concerto with returning soloist Lara St. John on March 4 & 5, 2023.
Equally at home in both symphonic and operatic repertoire, Parameswaran has led acclaimed performances of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love with Curtis Opera Theater. In Cleveland, he has assisted Franz Welser-Möst on productions of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. Parameswaran is the conductor on the album Two x Four featuring the Curtis 20/21 ensemble alongside violinists Jaime Laredo and Jennifer Koh, featuring works by Bach, David Ludwig, Philip Glass, and Anna Clyne.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Parameswaran holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and political science from Brown University, where he graduated with honors. At Brown, he began his conducting studies with Paul Phillips. He received an Artist Diploma in conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with renowned pedagogue Otto-Werner Mueller as the Albert M. Greenfield Fellow.
